UK: Boys sentenced for attempted rape of eight-year-old girl

Two 11-year-old boys were each given a three-year supervision order today for attempting to rape an eight-year-old girl.

Two 11-year-old British boys were each given a three-year supervision order today for attempting to rape an eight-year-old girl.

They were aged 10 last October when the girl told her mother that she had been assaulted in Hayes, west London.

The boys were each found guilty of two charges of attempted rape by a 10-2 majority at the end of an Old Bailey trial but cleared of rape.

Jurors rejected claims by defence barristers that the boys – one of whom was described as a model pupil by his teacher – were just being naughty or playing a game like doctors and nurses.

Sentencing them today, Mr Justice Saunders said: “I do not accept that what happened was a game but I do accept that you did not realise how serious what you were doing was.”

But the judge said that to impose any sort of custodial sentence would be “counter-productive” and not in the best interests of the boys.

The boys, who had been told in advance that they would not be locked up, chatted excitedly and looked round the court as they were brought in at the start of today’s brief hearing.